Can Law School Rankings Predict Future Career Satisfaction?

Law.com, Can Law School Rankings Predict Future Career Satisfaction?:

Christopher D. Iacono graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School a little over four years ago. In 2019, he said in an interview with my predecessor, Karen Sloan, that U.S. News & World Report Law School Rankings greatly influenced his decision to go to Penn Carey Law instead of to Temple University Beasley School of Law even though Temple has a part-time program and cost less.

Iacono worked as a full time police officer in Philadelphia while attending law school, and said, “At the end of the day, I would have been the same Chris going to Temple as the Chris at Penn. But I was willing to fork out an extra $100,000 and crush my body for three years, probably because of the rankings. If it weren’t for the rankings, I would have gone to Temple. It would have been a no brainer.”

In 2021, Iacono published Legally Unhappy: How US News and Law Schools Have Failed and How This Can Be Fixed How This Can Be Fixed in the Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center Law Review.

“So, US News, here is a guide to fixing the problem. The interviews have been done and the research had been completed; thus, the roadmap has been generated.” Iacono wrote in his paper’s conclusion. “Why not force schools to compete with each other over meaningful categories that ultimately lead to greater professional satisfaction?” ...

On June 15, I had the pleasure of participating in a panel on the U.S. News & World Report Law Rankings during the Association of American Law Schools’ Institutional Advancement conference to see if we could make sense of what has happened with the rankings of late and what the future might hold for them.

Paul L. Caron, dean of Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, was moderator and the two other speakers were William Treanor, dean of Georgetown University Law Center, and Mike Spivey, founder of Spivey Consulting Group. The discussion centered on the changes to U.S. News’ methodology after 63 law schools ceased cooperating with the survey.

The consensus was that U.S. News still has a long ways to go before law school deans will feel that the rankings are fairly representing law schools in a way that will be beneficial to prospective law students. ...

Yet the rankings don’t (is there a way they can?) predict how satisfied a law school graduate will be with one’s career?

Iacono, who now works as a detective with the Falls Township Police Department in Pennsylvania and continues to work as a part-time associate at Kline and Specter as he did four years ago, told Law.com in an email Tuesday, “I am happy that U.S. News is finally making an effort to change their methodology,” however, “I still don’t agree that the methodology is good, being that nothing considers job satisfaction and tuition reduction as being factors (which my article suggests).

“But by the schools pushing back, they are at least exposing the flawed U.S. News,” and hopefully prospective law students will realize that U.S. News is just one small resource to help them choose the school that is best for them,” Iacono added.